Glenco'e

(2 syl.). The massacre of Glencoe. The Edinburgh
authorities exhorted the Jacobites to submit to William and Mary, and
offered pardon to all who submitted on or before the 31st of December,
1691.

Mac-Ian, chief of the Macdonalds of Glencoe, was unable to do so
before the 6th of January, and his excuse was sent to the Council at
Edinburgh. The Master of Stair (Sir John Dalrymple) resolved to make an
example of Mac-Ian, and obtained the king's permission “to extirpate
the set of thieves.” Accordingly, on the 1st of February, 120 soldiers,
led by a Captain Campbell, marched to Glencoe, told the clan they were
come as friends, and lived peaceably among them for twelve days; but on
the morning of the 13th, the glenmen, to the number of thirty-eight,
were scandalously murdered, their huts set on fire, and their flocks
and herds driven off as plunder. Campbell has written a poem, and
Talfourd a play on the subject.